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Issues of transformative change in gender relations have been on the development agenda for four decades and no-one could say that there have not been significant policy initiatives taken to achieve this objective. The enthusiasm generated during the 1975 International Year for Women and throughout the UN international Women’s Decade from 1976-1985 is undeniable and the achievements are clear. Gender is now widely accepted as a necessary analytical category for development programmes and a mass of statistics has been assembled on women’s role and position in different, especially rural societies throughout the world. As a consequence, women’s position has become more visible, and the direct participation of women as well as men in programmes has been accepted as essential for capturing women’s special knowledge and concerns. Throughout this period, and partly because of the analysis of practical experiences gained, the understanding of how gender works increased amongst feminist scholars even if it was contested. Based on reported findings that women are more concerned about the welfare of other household members than men, and, therefore more likely to spend any increase in benefits on meeting household rather than personal needs and wants, agencies have adopted the assumption that where women are the lead actors (take decisions about resource use including income gained), not only are development interventions more likely to be effective and efficient but also, everyone will gain.
